10 Health Benefits of Green Tea

Green tea is a tea that is very popular in many parts of Asia. It is light-colored and made from leaves which are heated with steam. The green tea is considered one of the healthiest liquids that you can take into your body. The health benefits of green tea are so many that this article will not be able to exhaust all of them. It is for this reason that doctors all over the world keep recommending green tea to all, regardless of age or gender.

I must say that if you haven’t been taking green tea, then you are missing out on a great deal of health benefits that could have easily come your way.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the numerous health benefits of the green tea.

Below are the major health benefits that we can all enjoy just by regularly drinking green tea:

Exercising is one of the best ways to burn excess fat in your body, but a regular consumption of green tea can also help you burn fat. According to a recent study in the United States, obese people who made no changes to their diet or lifestyle but drank green tea at least three times a day burned up to 200 calories every day. This is enough evidence that green tea is extremely helpful when it comes to the burning of extra calories in the body. The more calories you burn, the healthier you are going to become. If this is not a healthy benefit of green tea, then I don't know what is.

Another very good health benefit of green tea is the fact that it can reduce our risks of developing some types of cancers. Green tea is capable of doing this simply because of how rich it is in certain potent antioxidants. These antioxidants are so powerful that they are capable of lowering our risks of suffering from certain types of cancers. We all know that cancer comes as a result of uncontrolled or wild growth of cells in the body which is promoted by oxidative damage. But with the presence of antioxidants, the uncontrolled growth of cells in the body can be mitigated or prevented. And if green tea is one of the most powerful sources of antioxidants, then it goes without saying that the more green tea that you consume, the less your risks are of developing cancer. Some examples of the types of cancers that green tea can help to prevent include: breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, etc.

Studies have shown that women who frequently drink large quantities of green tea tend to have slimmer chances of developing breast cancer. Other studies also indicate that men can lower their risks of developing prostate cancer by about 48% just by frequently drinking green tea.

Bottom line: Green tea drinkers have lesser chances of developing various types of cancers as compared to people who do not drink green tea. Green tea fights cancer with its powerful antioxidant properties.

High in the list of the health benefits of green tea is the fact that it can help in lowering your blood pressure and in protecting you from suffering from the deadly condition known as hypertension or high blood pressure.

Health experts say that hypertension can also be caused by angiotension–converting enzyme (ACE), which is a type of enzyme that is produced by the kidneys. The more ACE that is produced by the kidney, the more a person’s risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure) becomes. It is for this reason that many drugs that are used in fighting hypertension have components that inhibit or prevent the effects of ACEs.

Studies have shown that green tea contains natural compounds that are ACE inhibitors. When a person regularly drinks a lot of green tea, his or her body becomes automatically equipped with ACE inhibitors that block the harmful effects of ACE thereby automatically reducing blood pressure. This is why several studies have shown that green tea drinkers significantly reduce their risks of suffering from hypertension or high blood pressure than non-green tea drinkers.

Diabetes is a very dangerous condition. It is a very serious disease in which the blood sugar level becomes too high for the good of the body. Diabetes is a killer and can kill fast if not handled properly.

Millions of people all over the world suffer from diabetes, but green tea can protect you from this harmful disease.

When you have diabetes, you have an elevated blood sugar level. What happens in this situation is that the body is unable to produce insulin which causes the blood sugar level to keep rising and rising to very dangerous levels. Insulin is a natural substance that the body produces in order to convert sugar in the body into energy.

When you drink green tea regularly, you improve your insulin sensitivity and that significantly helps to reduce your blood sugar levels.

According to health experts, anyone who is an avid green tea drinker reduces his or her risks of developing type II diabetes in a significant way.

If you are looking for ways to lose weight and avoid becoming obese, then you should give green tea a try. Several studies have shown that green tea can significantly lower your risks of becoming obese.

Why does green tea help us reduce weight? This is simply because green tea has the ability to reduce our body fat (as we noticed in the first benefit above). The more green tea that you drink, the more body fat you burn – especially the abdominal fat which is very dangerous for the body. This is the reason why good doctors keep on advising obese patients to cultivate the habit of engaging in daily exercises in addition to frequently drinking green tea. At least two to three cups a day is fine.

Green tea is loaded with powerful natural anti-bacterial compounds which can help in reducing the amount of bacteria in the mouth. Some bacteria in the mouth are responsible for cavities whereas others are responsible for giving a person bad breath. Since green tea is a natural anti-bacterial agent, it can help prevent cavities and tooth decay from developing and also prevent you from getting bad breath.

How does green tea lower bad cholesterol in the body? Green tea is highly rich in antioxidants. When we drink this tea, the powerful antioxidant properties in it prevent abnormal blood clotting and oxidation of bad cholesterol in the arteries. Too much bad cholesterol in the body leads to heart diseases. And if green tea is capable of reducing the amount of bad cholesterol in the body, then it is without a shred of doubt a good protector against heart diseases.

From the point above, we saw that green tea is extremely good in reducing bad cholesterol in the body. And we know how much bad cholesterol in the body contributes towards heart disease. Anything or food that is capable of reducing bad cholesterol is good for the fight against heart disease. This is why green tea is considered by many to be one of the best foods for the fight against heart disease. Scientists say that the more green tea a person drinks, the more bad cholesterol that the person’s body is going to get rid of and the more the person is going to reudce his or her risk of developing a heart disease.

Green tea is very important when it comes to boosting your immune system, considering the fact that it has a great deal of health benefits. It is highly nutritious and can protect you from so many diseases. For example, according to a recent study in Japan, avid green tea drinkers tend to suffer less from diseases such a influenza, colds and flu. This is so because green tea boosts the immune system and protects the body from various kinds of bacteria and viruses. The more green tea that you drink, the healthier you are going to be. Several other studies around the world also indicate that green tea contains powerful properties that boost a person’s immunity against harmful bacteria and viruses.

Arthritis is a very common disease in which a person’s body joints become swollen and very painful. According to health experts, arthritis can be mitigated or prevented by taking in certain powerful antioxidants or anti-inflammatory drugs. And green tea is highly rich in these powerful antioxidants that can reduce the symptoms of arthritis. The antioxidants in green tea treat arthritis the way an anti-inflammatory drug does. When you therefore drink a lot of green tea frequently then you are going to increase your chances of being protected from arthritis. All in all, green tea can prevent arthritis.

Green tea is known to have very powerful compounds such as the catechin compound that when taken protect a person from cognitive impairment. Recent studies have shown that elderly people who drink at least 10 cups of green tea a day significantly reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s.

Green tea is best taken without milk or sugar. If you want to reap all the above health benefits of green tea, then my advice to you is to never stop taking it. Drink as many cups of green tea as you can in a day. The more you drink, the more health benefits you are going to get. The best part is that there are no side effects of drinking too much green tea.